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Steering at a Distance: A New Paradigm of Public Governance in Dutch Higher Education
Author(s) -
KICKERT WALTER
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
governance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.46
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1468-0491
pISSN - 0952-1895
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0491.1995.tb00202.x
Subject(s) - autonomy , corporate governance , government (linguistics) , christian ministry , control (management) , legislation , public administration , steering committee , self governance , public relations , political science , sociology , management , law , economics , engineering , engineering management , linguistics , philosophy
In the 1980s a new concept of government steering was developed at the Dutch ministry of Education and Sciences, called “steering at a distance.” It is a departure from “classical” government steering by means of legislation, prohibitions and regulations and a move towards more autonomy and self‐responsibility for institutions of higher education. This new paradigm of public governance in Dutch higher education represents a drastic change both in a practical sense — the new steering concept has actually been carried out and implemented resulting in major institutional, legal, financial and planning changes — and in the scientific sense. The new concept departs from hierarchical, direct top‐down control. Government is only one of the influencing actors in a complex network of many interrelated, more or less autonomous actors. The new concept contributes to the scientific body of knowledge on steering in complex interorganizational networks.